KENTA Reuniting With Longtime Tag Partner For First Time In Over Eight Years

A huge tag team reunion has been announced for Pro Wrestling NOAH's New Year event at Nippon Budokan. KENTA is set to reunite with Naomichi Marufuji for the first time in eight years. The team last wrestled together in May 2014.

The pair have a storied history in Pro Wrestling NOAH. KENTA and Marufuji as a team were the inaugural GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, a reign that lasted a year and a half from November 2003 to May 2005

Their history isn't strictly limited to the time spent as a team, however. The pair have been rivals who clashed over the GHC World Heavyweight Championship. Their match against one another in October 2006 drew much critical acclaim. In 2014, KENTA left Pro Wrestling NOAH for WWE and NXT. However, WWE did allow KENTA to return to Pro Wrestling NOAH one time in 2018 for Marufuji's 20th-anniversary event where they faced off once more with Marufuji coming out on top.

KENTA was granted his release from WWE in 2019 and returned to Japan as part of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Shortly after his NJPW debut, he shockingly joined Bullet Club and has remained a mainstay of the stable ever since. As part of Bullet Club, he made a couple of surprise AEW appearances to assist Kenny Omega.

KENTA has appeared in Pro Wrestling NOAH once since his WWE release. He made his first NOAH appearance since 2018 at their The New Year event in 2022 in a six-man tag team match.